“But when the Helper comes, whom I shall send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father, He will testify of Me. He will glorify Me, for He will take of what is Mine and declare it to you.”

Welcome to Pentecost, the Feast of Booths, the Church’s birthday, the day appointed by the Christ when He said to His 11, “Behold, I send the Promise of My Father upon you; but tarry in the city of Jerusalem until you are endued with power from on high.” (Luke 24:49) It was on that first Pentecost, when Jews from all over the world were gathered in Jerusalem for the feast, and Jesus’ disciples—His apostles—were gathered together in once place, probably that same upper room from Maundy Thursday, and as Jesus had told them would happen,

[S]uddenly there came a sound from heaven, as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting. Then there appeared to them divided tongues, as of fire, and one sat upon each of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance. (Acts 2:2-4)

As a result of the Spirit’s sitting upon the apostles, what Jesus spoke of in today’s Gospel lesson happened. “But when the Helper comes, whom I shall send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father, He will testify of Me. He will glorify Me, for He will take of what is Mine and declare it to you.” As Rev. Peter Bender writes, concerning the work of the apostles,

It is the Holy Spirit who has spoken through the prophets of the Old Testament, and it would be the Holy spirit who would now speak through the witness of the apostles in the New Testament. They were called to give testimony concerning Jesus. The Holy Spirit would bring to their remembrance everything that Jesus had taught them, so that they could faithfully preach His Word in the world.

And as it happened on that first Pentecost, the apostles spoke the Word of God, and the people gathered in Jerusalem heard the truth of Jesus Christ, crucified, risen, and ascended. Some of the people were confused—“Whatever could this mean?” (Acts 2:12)—while others mocked them—They are full of new wine. (Acts 2:13) Peter, ever one to open his mouth before thinking, responds to both, preaching a sermon of repentance, absolution, and baptism. And that day 3000 people were added to the 120 or so members of the Church. (Acts 1:15; 2:41) 3000 people that first Pentecost, “And the Lord added to the church daily those who were being saved.” (Acts 2:47)

This is an act of God that has not stopped. Daily, the Lord is adding to the church those who are being saved. And as He did on that first Pentecost, the process remains the same. “He will take of what is Mine and declare it to you.” “Faith comes by hearing,” the apostle Paul wrote in his Spirit-breathed letter to the Romans. (Romans 10:17) Ever since that first Pentecost day, believers were made as the Word of faith is preached into their ears, the same Word which is combined with water to make a Holy Baptism, at which the Holy Spirit is given, working faith and forgiveness of sins, life, and salvation.

And so it continues to this day, wherever the Word of all grace and truth and faith is proclaimed, such Word as it collected for us in the New Testament by the apostles who witnessed the death and resurrection of the enfleshed God—a New Testament which bears witness of the fulfillment of all that was written in the Old. Again, Rev. Bender writes,

The church of Jesus Christ is founded upon the prophetic and apostolic Scriptures. There is no other authority in the church. The church and her ministers are bound to the apostolic witness. In so far as the church is faithful to this witness, the promise of Jesus applies also to us: the Spirit of truth will guide you into all truth. Faith in Christ rests upon the Word of God alone. There is no other source of certainty. Faith is created by the Word of God. Faith believes the Word of God. Faith confesses the Word of God.

And this, as we confess in the Creed, as we learned from the Small Catechism, is the work of the Holy Spirit: “I believe that I cannot by my own reason or strength believe in Jesus Christ, my Lord, or come to Him; but the Holy Spirit has called me by the Gospel, enlightened me with His gifts, sanctified and kept me in the true faith.”

What does the Holy Spirit do? He takes of what is Christs and gives it to us. Luther explains this for us:

It is not enough simply that Christ be preached; the Word must be believed. Therefore, God sends the Holy Spirit to impress the preaching upon the heart—to make it inhere and live therein. Unquestionably, Christ accomplished all—took away our sins and overcame every obstacle, enabling us to become, through him, lord over all things. But the treasure lies in a heap; it is not everywhere distributed and applied. Before we can enjoy it, the Holy Spirit comes and communicates it to the heart, enabling us to believe and say, “I too, am one who shall have the blessing.” To everyone who hears is grace offered through the Gospel; to grace is he called, as Christ says (Matt 11:28), “Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden,” etc.

Now, notice what does not go on. The Holy Spirit is not sent to draw attention to Himself. The Holy Spirit does make Himself known as the Savior of the world, as if He were some sort of surrogate for an absent Christ (who is truly not absent). The Holy Spirit seeks no glory and receives no glory apart from that given to the Son, by whom and whom only we are given to know God. His work is solely to point to Christ as your Savior—to give you faith in Christ as your Savior—which is exactly as we learned to confess in the Creed, as explained earlier. Again, Luther comments, “Let us, then, learn to recognize the Holy Spirit—to know that his mission is to present to us the priceless Christ and all his blessings; to reveal them to us through the Gospel and apply them to the heart, making them ours.” “[E]verything the Holy spirit does, He does to extol Christ,” Rev. Bender wrote.

Today’s Gospel lesson fills us in on how He does this. Again, Rev. Bender wrote of today’s text, “There is no passage that speaks more clearly about the Holy Spirit and his work than this passage...” If you want to learn and explain what it is the Holy Spirit does, Jesus tells us in today’s text: “He will glorify Me, for He will take of what is Mine and declare it to you. All things that the Father has are Mine. Therefore I said that He will take of Mine and declare it to you.” What is His work? “He will convict the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment: of sin, because they do not believe in Me; of righteousness, because I go to My Father and you see Me no more; of judgment, because the ruler of this world is judged.”

“He will convict the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment...” Note the use of the word “convict.” To convict is to prove guilt or innocence by way of evidence or testimony. It is to convince of a verdict of guilt or innocence. Here, the world is being convicted by the work of the Holy Spirit, and the evidence or testimony He uses is the Word of God: “He will take of what is Mine...” “Even if no one in the world believes the testimony, it is no less true. Through the proclamation of Law and Gospel, the Holy Spirit ‘convicts the world’ of what is true in Christ before God the Father. The Word of God says what is so!” (Rev. Peter Bender) Through the proclamation of Law and Gospel—the Word of God—the Holy Spirit convicts the world of sin, righteousness, and judgment.

“[The Holy Spirit] will convict the world of sin...because they do not believe in Me.” it has often been said that all sin is unbelief. Another way to put that is that unbelief is the root of all sin, which is rebellion against God. We sin because we are sinful—we wrestle with Old Adam, a nature inherited from father Adam, who rebelled against God. In those moments of sin—which can rightly be called every moment—we demonstrate in ourselves a lack of trust in God; we claim that our ways are higher than God’s ways (cf. Isaiah 55:8-9, opposite); we reject and rebel against God as the giver of all good. The Word of God declares as much to us, calling us sinners, and this is the evidence that the Holy Spirit uses to convict us of sin, showing us our need for Christ, the Savior, as is the chief use of the Law.

[W]hatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God. Therefore by the deeds of the law no flesh will be justified in His sight, for by the law is the knowledge of sin. (Romans 3:19-20)

The Old-Adam, natural inclination to this proclamation is to rebel against it; is there any surprise? To put it plainly, no one likes his faults pointed out; no one likes to be told that she has sinned. In those times, we so easily want to echo what the 6-year old would say, “Nuh uh.” Thanks be to God, however, that the work of the Holy Spirit is to lead us into all truth, and that not rebelling against this is to confess the Word of God—to same-say Him—“I, a poor, miserable sinner, confess unto Thee all my sins and iniquities...” And that leads us to the next point.

“[The Holy Spirit] will convict the world of righteousness...because I go to My Father and you see Me no more.” After the conviction of sin comes the proclamation of the Gospel, bringing with it the conviction of righteousness. The death of Christ on the cross is the righteousness of God. “Jesus ‘went to the Father’ in His death to offer up Himself as the righteous offering for the sins of the world,” (Rev. Peter Bender) the sins which He had taken into Himself to destroy by His death and resurrection; it is as St. Paul wrote, “For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.” (2 Corinthians 5:21) And so the Spirit comes to convict the world of righteousness by the proclamation of the forgiveness of sins procured by Christ’s death on the cross—He who is “the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the whole world” (1 John 2:2)—which is the only way given to us to be saved! This, as Rev. Bender notes, is the heart of the Spirit’s work among us, for recall how Dr. Luther described it: “[T]he treasure lies in a heap; it is not everywhere distributed and applied. Before we can enjoy it, the Holy Spirit comes and communicates it to the heart, enabling us to believe...”

But now the righteousness of God apart from the law is revealed, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets, even the righteousness of God, through faith in Jesus Christ, to all and on all who believe. For there is no difference; for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God set forth as a propitiation by His blood, through faith, to demonstrate His righteousness, because in His forbearance God had passed over the sins that were previously committed, to demonstrate at the present time His righteousness, that He might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus. (Romans 3:21-26)

Here could be said what I almost always say to end sermons, “You are forgiven for all of your sins.” This is what the Word of God declares of you, and by faith you receive it. Again, we can make mention of Old Adam and his reaction. Simply put, He would say, “I don’t believe it,” or, “I don’t need it.” Much as Old Adam would reject the gift of faith, so now he would reject this gift of grace: forgiveness. Sadly, many perish under this influence of Old Adam, fully and completely rejecting the forgiveness that Christ has won for the whole world—for them. But for those of us who trust in Jesus Christ, who are led into the truth by the Spirit, we simply and thankfully say, “Amen.” Amen, amen, that is, yes, yes, it is so; the Word of God declares it, by faith, I trust and receive it.

Therefore, finally, “[the Holy Spirit] will convict the world of judgment...because the ruler of this world is judged.” The ruler of this world will use all manner of tricks and conniving to condemn you. He is skilled at using the Word of God in His own twisted way to convince you that you are condemned by God. He works with Old Adam in an attempt to prove to you that your sins are too great for God to overcome—that you are unforgivable—so you might as well revel in your sinfulness with the rest of the sinful, carefree, and “unforgiven” world. Such is the case that He presents, but He leaves out key pieces of evidence: you are forgiven for Christ’s sake. Christ took all of your sin into His flesh and suffered the wrath of God—the full wrath of God—for it in your place. Satan is powerless, therefore, to accuse us of our sin (if it has been taken from us, it is no longer our sin) or condemn us to eternal death.

There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death. For what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, God did by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, on account of sin: He condemned sin in the flesh,that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. (Romans 8:1-4)

Furthermore,

What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things? Who shall bring a charge against God's elect? It is God who justifies. Who is he who condemns? It is Christ who died, and furthermore is also risen, who is even at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us. (Romans 8:31-34)

That, dear friends, is the work of the Holy Spirit. This He has done to you and to the world. He has convicted you of sin, righteousness, and judgment, convinced you that you are sinful and forgiven by the evidence that is the Word of God, by which evidence He has further convinced you that you are not nor cannot be condemned.

The Holy Spirit glorifies Christ, by taking of what is His—eternal righteousness—and declaring it to us. There is no other work of the Spirit than to bring Christ and His righteousness to us, that everything He is might become our own. The Spirit’s message is the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Any spirit who does not preach Christ and Him crucified is the spirit of antichrist. (Rev. Peter Bender)

His work is to give you faith that receives and clings to these words for your salvation, which He also brings into your hearing, that for Christ’s sake, who is seated at the right hand of God, interceding for you, you are forgiven for all of your sins. The Word of God is sure, and it’s testimony is true. This is so!